Honda Civic Type-R Quicker Than C5 Corvette Z06 At Nürburgring

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The latest hoopla around the industry has mostly surrounded Honda and its latest Civic Type-R. What’s a Civic Type-R story doing here? Well, it’s actually quicker than a Corvette around the Nürburgring.

A C5 Corvette Z06, that is. While Honda celebrates its fastest front-wheel drive lap record, the 10th generation Civic Type-R took down a handful of other vehicles in the process when comparing the times. That includes the aforementioned C5 Corvette Z06.

When the C5 Corvette Z06 clocked its 7:56 time, it was a pretty big deal. Chevrolet claimed it was the first production car to break past the eight-minute mark. Flash forward to present day and the Civic Type-R was able to scoot around the Green Hell in 7:43.8. Easy now, because that doesn’t mean the Corvette would lose in every situation. The Civic Type-R is still down a substantial amount of horsepower compared to either LS6 output from the C5 Z06.

Still, it’s remarkable how far manufacturers have come. The fact a little hatchback from Honda is able to clock a quicker time than America’s sports car, even if it is two generations older, is quite the feat. It’s still a long way off from the holy grail of Corvettes, though. The C6 Corvette ZR1 managed to spit out a 7:13 time in 2013.

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20 Comments

C5 was in the era where corvettes were primarily drag cars. no surprise. a drag race would have been a different story. Now what really needs to happen is get Chevy to take its cars (much how GMC takes chevy’s trucks and SUV’s) and create a Pontiac line with sport tires and turboed engines. Here is the real problem I see. imagine a Malibu with 3.6 turbo from Cady, and then add sport tires. That would be a riot! I still drive my old Pontiac sunfire, and its got great shocks and tires, but needs a turbo and I cant afford one till I graduate college sadly.

I believe there is room for a single sports sedan offering from chevy, and a mild “performance trim” on most of their mundane vehicles, but a whole line up of cars with cadillac engines would completely cannibalize the potential success of the cadillac V series. If you want a 3.6 TT Malibu, save up a bit and buy the ATS-V

“C5 was in the era where corvettes were primarily drag cars. no surprise. a drag race would have been a different story”

When was the Corvette ever a ‘drag car’? This isn’t an Challenger SRT we’re talking about.

If anything, the Corvette has always been a road-going sports car. It was born from inspiration taken from light-weight British sports cars that were brought into the US after WW2. Drag racing was just something the Corvette could do if it was modified afterwards by the owner, but it was never top-of-mind for the engineers and designers of the car.

“I still drive my old Pontiac sunfire, and its got great shocks and tires, but needs a turbo and I cant afford one till I graduate college sadly”

When you graduate and start you career, the Sunfire, and by extension Pontiac, will become a memory as you realize what the current market offers.

Also, the 3.6 turbo Malibu you’re describing is expressed best as a Vsport CTS or ATS-V. Either car is far and away doing a better job than what a comparable Pontiac could do.

So, how Chevrolet want to take on Honda Civic type R and the next i30 N from Hyundai, Focus ad other competitors in that segment… not with the Camaro. just put a 2.0 with 300+ hp under the Cruze hood and a sport package, it could be awesome.

#1 The C5 was as far from a Drag Car as any on the market less any FWD. The Z06 was a good car in its time but we have really progressed in all models. Hell the 08 Cobalt SS was nearly 8 min lap times back in 08 just a little off the present day Honda. The truth is in this day of base model 4 cylinders putting out 200 HP you are hard pressed to compare today to the past.

Hell my HHR SS had faster Ring times than the early NSX. SO What!

#2 Pontiac is still dead and will remain dead as it is just too damn expensive to create a new line based on present models that will sell only 5 % of what the model it is based on sells. No money in it. Trust me Pontiac was not making much money. Building neat cars but little profits. Hell they did not stop the Chapter 11

#3 FWD performance cars like the Honda need a global market. Chevy and Buick have not gotten to where they can do it efficiently yet. Performance models like these are expensive and need a global market due to low volumes per market sold.

This Honda will be sold globally just as the Ford RS is because they can not sell enough in one market to make it worth the investment.

Note Toyota and GM are showing record profits from maximizing investments and profits. While it is not sexy selling boring FWD sedans it makes money and when sales drop as they are on many models globally now they will continue to make money while others with their Demon worship will not be making record profits and continue to look for a partner to share cost because they failed to invest in new platforms that would be more efficient and profitable.

FWD performance cars are a bust. You get over 300 HP and add the AWD needed to get it to the ground then you start to see prices around $40K. Sorry but I am not paying $40K for a FWD based Honda or Ford. I have owned a 300 HP Turbo FWD and while I loved the car it could not put the power to the ground and to be honest GM did not make much money on them just as Ford makes little to nothing on the SVO models since they are not global.

If you were going to do anything take a AWD CUV and put the TT V6 in it as it would justify the price and it would sell in volumes that North America could sustain.

Today real performance starts at $40K and more like it or not. The days of real cheap performance are gone.

If you think a AWD TT Malibu is great then answer this would you pay over $40 K for it? Hell Buick has already offered this package in a single Turbo and even at a discount had a hard time moving the GS that was a really good car.

As for the Sunfire that was one of several models that help kill Pontiac. Give me a break. They made Pontiac a Punch line